View full sizeFlint Journal archivesThis photo was taken by a Flint Journal photographer on Jan.11, 1937, while the air was filled with tear gas and police and workers battled at General Motors' Fisher Body No. 2. It shows a group of rioting sit-down strikers in front of the entrance to the worker-occupied plant on Chevrolet Avenue in Flint.

FLINT, Michigan -- A piece published by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy argues that Detroit and Michigan "probably" would have been better off if the Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37 failed.

High labor costs put General Motors and other automakers at a disadvantage in the global market, says Paul Kersey, director of labor policy for the Midland-based think tank, which generally advocates free-market and conservative principles.

Writes Kersey:

"Admittedly, there’s a lot of speculation involved, but there is no speculation in saying that Detroit has fallen hard. The men and women who took over Fisher #1 deserve credit for their courage, but any history of the sit-down strike must acknowledge the eventual fate of Detroit’s auto industry, and the part that the union that was born in that strike played in eventually bringing Detroit down."